3-year-old takes witness stand at preliminary exam

STACY LANGLEY

Published 11:14 am, Monday, April 25, 2016

Goebel, 19, is charged with one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct stemming from what the prosecution says was a November incident that took place at Small Wonders Christian Day Care in Colfax Township, formerly operated by Goebel's mother, Zita.

The preliminary examination started just after 11 a.m., and the girl was the first witness to testify. Due to the nature of the case and the girl's age, Judge Karl E. Kraus had chairs placed near the witness stand so attorneys were seated while they questioned her.

Before the preliminary examination was to get under way Tuesday, Huron County Assistant Prosecutor Gerald Prill requested the child's father be allowed to hold her on the witness stand for moral support. Kraus denied the request, but did allow the father to sit in a chair of his own next to the witness stand during questioning.

Prill began with a few questions of the child, starting first by asking her name. After asking the child to identify her colors by using a variety of colored markers, Prill then used the markers as a tool to inquire if the child knew what the truth is, and what a lie is.

As both Prill and James Woodworth, Goebel's attorney, were gathered closely around the child, she became less responsive to their questions as they grew more complex.

Woodworth asked the child if she was scared of him. The child would only nod her head up and down in a response, and Woodworth noted on the record that was to mean yes.

The child was given a break while the attorneys and judge hashed out what to do next. After a lunch recess they all agreed to call the girl's mother to the stand to testify.

Prill questioned the mother about her routine with her children on Nov. 3.

The mother told the court the day was the same as any other, taking her two children to the day care around 7:30 a.m. and returning to pick them up at 5:30 p.m.

It was in the evening of Nov. 3, the mother told the court, while she was rocking her daughter to sleep that her daughter began to act unusual. She said the girl hid her face, curling up in a ball and shaking back and forth.

The mother told the court she asked her daughter what was wrong, and as the mother began to tell the court what her child said, Woodworth objected to the admissibility of the mother's statement.

Needing time to review the arguments by both sides, and due to the delicate nature of the case, Kraus decided to give Prill and Woodworth until April 21 to submit in writing arguments as to if the court should or should not allow the child's statement to her mother into the record. He also set an April 28 court date for the preliminary examination to resume with the possibility of the child taking the stand to complete her testimony.

Barbara Kanaga, licensing consultant for the Michigan Family Independence Agency Office of Children and Adult Licensing, handled the investigation of the complaint. Kanaga indicated that Zita Goebel was not inside the day care but had walked another child out to the bus for preschool when the incident allegedly took place.

FIA documents from Kanaga reveal that Zita Goebel was licensed in 2000 and was allowed to care for up to six children at Small Wonders Christian Day Care, located at 960 W. Van Dyke.

Just days after FIA began its investigation, an attorney for Zita Goebel wrote a letter to FIA stating she "has closed her child care facility and discontinued her business." Kanaga's reports indicate she recommended Goebel's license be revoked. Small Wonders Christian Day Care is no longer in business according to Huron County Prosecutor Mark J. Gaertner.